Mexico arrests suspected attacker of U.S. consular agent

Xinhua, January 9, 2017
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Mexican officials on Sunday said
they arrested a man suspected of shooting and wounding a U.S.
consular agent in Mexico's second-largest city, Guadalajara,
capital of western Jalisco state.

The state prosecutor's office (FGE)
said on Twitter that "Special Forces of the FGE arrested the
consular agent's attacker," and handed him over to the federal
Attorney General's Office (PGR).

According to local media, the man
arrested is a 31-year-old U.S. citizen of Indian descent named
Zafar Zia, who has been living in Guadalajara since November.

As part of the arrest, the daily
Reforma reported, officials also seized a .38-caliber pistol, small
amounts of marijuana and a Honda with California license
plates.

The motive for the shooting was a
disagreement over a visa procedure, the daily said, though
officials have yet to confirm any details.

The consular agent was shot on
Friday as he was driving out of a building in the city's central
Vallarta Norte district.

Video footage released on Saturday
by the U.S. embassy in Mexico showed the suspect waiting on the
sidewalk for the agent to leave the building in his car before
firing from a few meters away, and breaking a window.

Following the attack, U.S.
officials offered a 20,000 U.S.-dollar reward for information
leading to the identification of the suspect, who appears in the
video wearing hospital-style blue scrubs, a wig and sunglasses.
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